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The Alliance for a Healthier Generation just announced that the Alliance School Beverage Guidelines have contributed to a 90 percent reduction in beverage calories shipped to schools between the 2004-2010 school years, according to a report published in the American Journal of Public Health. Established in 2006, the Alliance School Beverage Guidelines were developed as a landmark agreement between the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, The Coca-Cola Company, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, PepsiCo, and the American Beverage Association (ABA) to limit portion sizes and reduce the number of beverage calories available to children during the school day.

As a result of the Alliance School Beverage Guidelines, the beverage industry committed to changing the beverage mix in schools across America by removing full-calorie soft drinks and providing for lower-calorie, nutritious beverage options by the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year. At the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, 98.8% of all measured schools and school districts were in compliance with the guidelines, and beverage shipment volumes of full-calorie carbonated soft drinks to schools were 90 percent lower in the first half of the 2009-10 school year than they were in the first half of the 2004-2005 school year, before the Guidelines went into effect.

The Alliance School Beverage Guidelines are just one way that the Alliance is working to create healthier learning environments by helping students make healthier food and snack choices. The Alliance is helping 14,000 schools build healthier learning environments through the Healthy Schools Program, creating more accessible afterschool programs that incorporate physical activity, and providing access to health care benefits for childhood obesity.

The Alliance’s goal is to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by engaging directly with industry leaders, educators, parents, doctors, and kids. Since there is no single cause and no single solution for childhood obesity, the Alliance’s programs address both the macro- and micro-level changes necessary to combat childhood obesity.

About The Alliance for a Healthier Generation

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, founded by the American Heart Association and the Clinton Foundation, works to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity and to empower kids to develop lifelong, healthy habits.